Build Log- Project "*****"

[thedigitalmilk]

So I decided to make a new rig for myself, my previous rig was a bit sluggy and lacking in power for my needs. 

So I hunted and hunted for the parts that I thought were best for me and I came up with this:

 

CPU: FX8320 - £109.65                                                              Delivered

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P - £54.58                     Delivered

Case: Corsair 300R Windowed Edition - £65.00                         Delivered

Graphics Card: XFX R9 280x - £264.99                                    Dispatched

PSU: Corsair RM 750 Watt - £110.13                                         Delivered

HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda - £64.99                                      Dispatched

SSD: Kingston V300 120GB - £50.50                                          Dispatched

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile (2x4gb) - £60.62      Dispatched

Cooler: Corsair H80i - £73.74                                                    Dispatched   

Case Fans: Bitfenix Spectre 120mm Fans (x4) - £27.59            Delivered

Network Card: Asus PCE-N15 - £16.00                                     Delivered

 

Total: £897.79 

 

This is not the most high end build but I plan to do as much as I can with as little and make it look as clean as possible, the build will be mainly black/grey with some white led strip lighting.

I would have liked to have a higher budget but I am 15 and my only source of income is delivering papers which as you can tell is about as high income as being an obese prostitute.

 

The name of the build is undecided so any ideas are welcome.

 

Edit: Here is a picture of the parts I have so far: 

 

http://i.imgur.com/LesmYp9

[TheEpicCanadian]

Name suggestion: Equilibrium

 

Reason: It's a balanced build

[wng_kingsley7]

Nice...just saying damn...if only the 7970 was around it was selling under £15 quid less than the 280X

Good choice of components.

@TheEpicCanadian that is an epic name

 

for names call it : DesQk'un The K is silent

[thedigitalmilk]

Name suggestion: Equilibrium

 

Reason: It's a very balanced build

I like it

[iruixos]

Name suggestion: Equilibrium

 

Reason: It's a very balanced build

 

Nice one.

[thedigitalmilk]

Nice...just saying damn...if only the 7970 was around it was selling under £15 quid less than the 280X

Good choice of components.

Thanks:)

[helping]

well it's not really optimal IMO but it looks alright

[thedigitalmilk]

well it's not really optimal IMO but it looks alright

What would you consider to be optimal?

[helping]

CPU: FX8320 - £109.65                                                              Delivered

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P - £54.58          990FX board would have been better since an 8320 is going to require some overclocking. It's not really crossfire friendly either

Case: Corsair 300R Windowed Edition - £65.00                         Delivered

Graphics Card: XFX R9 280x - £264.99                               If this is a Double D cooler, the cooler it comes with is not very good, only marginally better than a reference cooler, a lot of them also come voltage locked. 

PSU: Corsair RM 750 Watt - £110.13                                 This PSU is too small (imo) to comfortably support two 7970's and 8320's overclocked, and too large for only a 7970 and 8320 overclocked

HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda - £64.99                               could have cut budget to a 1TB drive to spend on other stuff

SSD: Kingston V300 120GB - £50.50                                          Dispatched

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile (2x4gb) - £60.62      Dispatched

Cooler: Corsair H80i - £73.74                                                   depending on your ambient temperatures, a 212 evo would have kept a 8320 fine up to 4.4Ghz, you could have put that money elsewhere and switch to a 240 AIO later as an upgrade. The motherboard you have might not support clocks beyond that anyway

Case Fans: Bitfenix Spectre 120mm Fans (x4) - £27.59            Delivered

Network Card: Asus PCE-N15 - £16.00                                     Delivered

 

What would you consider to be optimal?

[thedigitalmilk]

 

CPU: FX8320 - £109.65                                                              Delivered

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P - £54.58          990FX board would have been better since an 8320 is going to require some overclocking. It's not really crossfire friendly either

Case: Corsair 300R Windowed Edition - £65.00                         Delivered

Graphics Card: XFX R9 280x - £264.99                               If this is a Double D cooler, the cooler it comes with is not very good, only marginally better than a reference cooler, a lot of them also come voltage locked. 

PSU: Corsair RM 750 Watt - £110.13                                 This PSU is too small (imo) to comfortably support two 7970's and 8320's overclocked, and too large for only a 7970 and 8320 overclocked

HDD: 2TB Seagate Barracuda - £64.99                               could have cut budget to a 1TB drive to spend on other stuff

SSD: Kingston V300 120GB - £50.50                                          Dispatched

RAM: 8GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile (2x4gb) - £60.62      Dispatched

Cooler: Corsair H80i - £73.74                                                   depending on your ambient temperatures, a 212 evo would have kept a 8320 fine up to 4.4Ghz, you could have put that money elsewhere and switch to a 240 AIO later as an upgrade. The motherboard you have might not support clocks beyond that anyway

Case Fans: Bitfenix Spectre 120mm Fans (x4) - £27.59            Delivered

Network Card: Asus PCE-N15 - £16.00                                     Delivered

 

What would you consider to be optimal?

 

I don't intend to be doing large over clocks with this build, the 650w version of the PSU was like £5 cheaper so i thought why not, I got the H80i because IMO it looks niceer than most air coolers, I chose the GPU because it will fit in with the build and the cooler is still pretty decent. Although I get where you are coming from.

[paulsterio]

120mm AIOs don't make much sense because they provide worse cooling than the top air coolers and are more expensive. Go with an NH-D14, if you have the space, if not then the NH-U14S or NH-U12S, they will all beat or come very close to the H80i and will be quite a fair bit cheaper. 

 

If you want to go AIO, go with a 240mm or 280mm solution and I would suggest against going with Corsair, but rather, suggest the NZXT Kraken X60, Swiftech H220 or one of the newer Coolermaster ones that are designed with Swiftech. Corsair units are just Asetek rebadges that aren't really worth their price compared to the options from Swiftech and NZXT. 

[carolkarine]

120mm AIOs don't make much sense because they provide worse cooling than the top air coolers and are more expensive. Go with an NH-D14, if you have the space, if not then the NH-U14S or NH-U12S, they will all beat or come very close to the H80i and will be quite a fair bit cheaper. 

 

If you want to go AIO, go with a 240mm or 280mm solution and I would suggest against going with Corsair, but rather, suggest the NZXT Kraken X60, Swiftech H220 or one of the newer Coolermaster ones that are designed with Swiftech. Corsair units are just Asetek rebadges that aren't really worth their price compared to the options from Swiftech and NZXT. 

 

space constraints. I need the "heatsink" somewhere other than directly above the cpu. I love AIOs for their decent cooling potential in small areas (like when I'm building my own mitx case)